Boom! Just like that another year of Eurovision is over. Similar to what I did last year, I wanna do a quick recap of this year’s contest. Since the title of this entry is part one of four, I guess this will not be so quick. I’m pretty much breaking this series into four parts:
Part 1: The first half of the grand final (Countries 1-13)
Part 2: The second half of the grand final (Countries 14 – 26)
Part 3: Countries that did not qualify for the final
Part 4: Concluding random thoughts
For Part 1 – 4, I’ll provide information on where the performances placed in the contests, my general thoughts about their performances, and my before and after score using my KOS Eurovision meter.
THE KOS EUROVISION METER
General Thoughts:
Overall, I thought the UK (and Ukraine) did a wonderful job hosting this year's contest. I definitely would put this year's contest in my Top 10 list of ESCs (if I had one). I think the BBC took note of all of the screwups that happened last year in Italy and was like that will NOT be us. While the UK did not place very well in this year's contest, the UK and the BBC have to give themselves a pat on the back for an amazing show. Although technically Ukraine won last year and was supposed to host, I thought the BBC did a great job with incorporating aspects of Ukrainian culture into the contest (e.g. hosts, interval acts, and the video postcards introducing the performers).
Image courtesy of Eurovision World
In terms of the contest, it was not a huge surprise that Loreen (Sweden) won. Even though she won the contest in 2012, she has been cemented both in and outside of the Eurovision bubble. Coming into this year’s contest, I thought (like most folks) that this year’s winner was going to be from a Nordic country. This year, three Nordic countries finished in the top five – Sweden, 1st; Finland, 2nd; and Norway, 5th. While Finland came in 2nd place, it still kind of counts as a win because the performer definitely was the heart of this year’s contest. While the difference between 1st and 2nd place was only 47 points, the difference between 2nd (Finland) and 3rd (Israel) place was 162 points!
Before getting into it, here were my rankings going into the contest.
Austria 🇦🇹: Teya & Salena – Who The Hell Is Edgar? – 15th Place
Eurovision points: 120 total – 16 Public; 104 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts before; 3 hearts after
Yeah! Who the hell is Edgar? In case you didn’t know, it’s a reference to Edgar Allen Poe. I’ll admit that I did not really get into this until a couple of weeks ago. Overall, I thought T & S did a great job opening the show, which I imagine is a tough spot to be in. However, I wish that they put in some of the quirkiness from the music video into their ESC performance.
Portugal 🇵🇹: Mimicat – Ai Coração – 23rd place
Eurovision points: 59 total – 16 Public; 43 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts before; 5 hearts after
Aw, shucks! i was hoping for a better result for Mimicat since this was one of my favorite songs for this ESC year. I’m not really sure why the juries and public were not receptive to this song. In particular, I was a bit shocked with the low scores that she received from the juries especially with her strong vocals. For me, this performance had everything: charisma, strong vocals, sassiness, movement around the stage. The only thing I would have liked: more use of the LED lighting on the floor. However, Mimicat mentioned that Portugal’s funds were a bit limited for what she wanted to have in her performance.
Switzerland🇨🇭: Remo Forrer – Watergun – 20th place
Eurovision points: 92 total – 31 Public; 61 Jury
KOS points: 2 hearts before; 3 hearts after
I thought this was a great interpretation of the song. Also, I loved the addition of modern choreography because I was afraid that it just was going to be him alone on the stage. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that he was actually doing the choreo with his dancers. While Remo probably did not want to come in 20th place, I think he did a wonderful job especially at his young age.
Poland 🇵🇱: Blanka – Solo – 19th place
Eurovision points: 93 total – 81 Public; 12 Jury
KOS points: 1 heart before; 3 hearts after
So I’m not going to get into the drama over Poland’s national selection. LOL. I think the Polish delegation remembered all of the jokes that were made about the “special effects” they used for last year’s artist and like LET’S DO IT AGAIN and make it even more ‘memeable’. I have to admit that I found several aspects of this performance quite messy. For instance, why have hologram of Blanka singing while the real Blanka was singing off camera? What was up with the random fluorescent clouds? Why was SOLO covered by the palm trees at the end? What the hell was up with the unnecessary dance break? Actually, the dance break was a little better than what I expected. This one of the cases why I’m over the use of pre-recorded backing tracks, because it sounded like she was lip syncing for most of the song. Although I was not a huge fan of the performance, I gotta say that the song is an earworm with a nice summery vibe.
Serbia 🇷🇸: Luke Black – Samo Mi Se Spava – 24th place
Eurovision points: 30 total – 16 Public; 14 Jury
KOS points: 1 heart before; 1 heart after
Eh, never got in to this song. I will say that it’s cool that some folks are sending avant garde songs to the contest, but Samo Mi Se Spave just never grew on me. I am surprised that Luke Black received only 16 points from the public vote because the ESC fandom hyped (maybe even overhyped) the hell out of this song.
France 🇫🇷: La Zarra – Évidemment – 16th place
Eurovision points: 104 total – 50 Public; 54 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts before; 3 hearts after
A lot of people were disappointed with where La Zarra landed in the competition. To be perfectly honest, I think 16th place is appropriate – not great position but not horrible either. While I like the song, the staging did not do too much for me. The camera angles were great and raising & lowering of the platform was cool. However, I wish that she would have exited the the platform towards the end of the song right after the vocal climax. I felt that La Zarra was too static and staying on the platform (while cool) isolated her from the audience. I one of those people who wants performers to sing to me, and I felt that La Zarra was singing at me instead of to me.
Cyprus 🇨🇾: Andrew Lambrou – Break a Broken Heart – 12th place
Eurovision points: 126 total -58 Public; 68 Jury
KOS points: 2 hearts before; 3 hearts after
I’ll say that I did not expect to like his performance as much as I did. Cyprus did a good job with the staging, and Andrew’s live vocals were pretty on point.
Spain 🇪🇸: Blanca Paloma – Eaea – 17th place
Eurovision points: 100 total -5 Public; 95 Jury
KOS points: 3 hearts before; 3 hearts after
Boy, the fandom was quite upset over where Blanca landed in the results. Vocally, Blanca is VERY impressive. However, I think the staging and the flamenco styling of the song were lost on the voting public (and I guess the jury). Also, I think performing right before Loreen, who was favored to win, cost her some points from the public. During our watch party in DC, I noticed that several people were lining up to use the bathroom and refilling their drinks so they would not miss Loreen’s performance. Many were looking forward to seeing Loreen (since she won the contest 10 yrs ago) and sacrificed Blanca for their bathroom/smoke/beverage refill breaks. See what I mean? A good chunk of this recap is about Loreen, not Blanca Paloma. While I like the song, I did find a lot of the staging (in particular the rapid cut away shots) quite erratic and annoying. My opinions aside, much like Mimicat, I was surprised that that jury gave her only 95 points considering that she probably was one of the strongest female vocalists this year. The hubby, who is from Spain and never really liked the song, provided an interesting insight. He pretty much said something like this: “In Spain, we don’t really like/listen to flamenco like the rest of the world assumes. If we don’t like it, why would we expect the rest of Europe to like it?” When we were in Spain this past April, he told his family and friends whom Spain sent to the contest, and the typical response was usually a scowl followed by a ‘why flamenco’ or a ‘why HER’?
Sweden 🇸🇪: Loreen – Tattoo – 1st place
Eurovision points: 583 total -243 Public; 340 Jury
KOS points: 3 hearts before; 4 hearts after
This year, it was pretty much was a contest between Sweden and Finland. Loreen definitely performed the hell out of this song. For me, it was not surprising that she won because she had the total package – impressive vocals, catchy song, impressive staging, a strong fandom, and backing from one of the strongest ESC countries.
Albania 🇦🇱: Albina & Familja Kelmendi – Duje – 22nd place
Eurovision points: 76 total -59 Public; 17 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts before; 4 hearts after
Duje! Ok, this song has been my guilty pleasure because it’s a bit emotionally cheezy. Some folks have said her performance and the Familja Kelmendi’s music video reminded them of a really bad Turkish soap opera. I’ll say that the music video also was kinda cheesy. 😉 That said, I think it’s great that an entire family competed in Eurovision this year. Of course in Albanian style, we had staging with LOUD vocals and alternating black and red lights. I’ll say that Albina vocals have been consistently great all season. Performance-wise, I’m so glad she stop doing her little fake cry at the end of the song.
Italy 🇫🇷: Marco Mengoni – “Due vite” 4th place
Eurovision points: 350 total -174 Public; 176 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts after; 4 hearts after
This is how you do it! Simple staging with a strong vocal. I’m not at all surprised (or upset) that Marco came in 4th place. I’ll say that I wasn’t too impressed with his blouse choice.
Estonia 🇪🇪: Alika – Bridges – 8th place
Eurovision points: 168 total -22 Public; 146 Jury
KOS points: 4 hearts before; 5 hearts after
This is another prime example of doing the most with simple staging. If you have good vocals, you do not need crazy staging with an insane number of lights, pyro, wind effects, dance breaks, etc. Well, I that that back because she had a little bit of wind in this performance. While this is a slow to mid-tempo ballad, I really appreciated her moving to different parts of the stage. And, she nailed the hell out of that last note.
Finland: Käärijä – Cha Cha Cha – 2nd place
Eurovision points: 526 total -376 Public; 150 Jury
KOS points: 3 hearts before; 5 hearts after
Like I mentioned above, this year’s ESC pretty much was between Kaarija and Loreen. This performance was so energetic that I was winded after watching it . . . maybe it was the gin. 😉 While Kaarija did not win, I really appreciated him bringing something different to the Eurovision stage and that it was enjoyed by both the national juries and the public. Actually, I was a bit worried that the national juries were going to tank him because he is not strong vocalist, and the song is a bit ‘weird’. While the performance was a ball of energy, Honestly, I thought that his national performance a bit more energetic. For me, the larger stage of ESC slightly reduced the power of the performance.